In a major breakthrough for India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) announced on Saturday that its Pune-based laboratory – National Institute of Virology (NIV) has successfully isolated and bred the British strain of Coronavirus (COVID-19). of UK arrivals. ICMR stated that India was the first to isolate the strain of the UK variant of COVID-19, ICMR said Vero cell lines were used by the ICMR scientists to grow the UK variant of the virus. Currently, 29 people have tested positive for the new COVID-19 UK strain.
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What is the new British variant?
The new species first came to light in December in the UK, but the samples in which it was found were collected in September. This led to the UK government announcing a strict Tier 4 lockdown in some parts of the UK, with nine European countries soon reporting cases of the new species. After learning of the new strain on December 8, the UK government informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of the new variant – which has maintained there is still no evidence that the pathogen behaves differently from the existing types of viruses . . However, pharmaceutical companies have maintained that they expect their vaccines to work against all variants.
The new Coronavirus strain has already made its way to India, with the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation extending the ban on flights from the UK until January 6, 2021, with testing all returnees from the UK from December 25 to date is required. While reports said the strain is said to be 70% more transmissible, the Union Ministry of Health has assured that the vaccines under development would also work against the variants discovered in the UK and South Africa. A consortium of 10 government labs across the country has been established for genome sequencing, with the Center recommending all states to perform 5% genome sequencing of all samples in their labs.
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Covishield and Covaxin receive SEC nod
On January 1, the Serum Institute of India (SII) – Covishield – COVID-19 vaccine candidate was recommended by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) Subject Expert Committee (SEC) for emergency authorization – making it the first vaccine is to receive the green signal. A similar nod was given to Bharat Biotech Pvt. Ltd (BBL) ‘s vaccine – Covaxin, while Zydus Cadila has gotten a nod to begin Phase 3 studies. Both vaccines are now waiting for DCGI’s nod, while Union Minister of Health, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, announced that free COVID-19 vaccines will be provided to the beneficiaries with the highest priority in the first phase of the vaccination campaign.
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